This invention relates to the process and method of tire storage, and, more particularly, how tires are able to be stored in mobile storage trailers and containers.
One typical tire storage method is to store tires in trailers using Conex™ boxes or using another method of racking and storing the tires, such as by laying them flat (horizontally) on a floor and stacking them on top of each other. This presents many challenges and problems. For example, the weight of the tires squeezes the tire's beads together (especially the bottom tire in the stack), thus causing problems when mounting the tire to a rim because the beads are no longer the right distance apart. Another one of the dangers of stacking tires is that when the stack of tires reaches a certain height, the tires become unstable, especially if tires in the stack are not all vertically aligned. This presents a safety threat to workers, both from the risk of the stack falling over and also from a worker awkwardly trying to lift/pull a tire off the top of the stack. It is desirable to provide a safer work environment by removing the dangers of stacking tires.
Still another issue concerns difficulties associated with trying to access, identify, select and remove tires from stored tires. For example, it is difficult to see the identification on stored tires laid flat on top of each other. Further, the arrangement can become very unorganized as tire(s) are selected and pulled out, especially when the tire(s) selected is not at a top of the stack. These problems are compounded due to the dark/dirty environment where tires are often stored. A considerable amount of manpower is used when tires are delivered, in terms of unloading the tires, and moving the tires to a desired storage area while trying to keep some sense of tire organization. This includes stacking and restacking the tires on top of each other, which can cause worker back issues, especially while trying to form stacks that are well organized and stable (and that do not have tires vertically misaligned with other tires in the stacks). The amount of time spent moving, stacking, and restacking tires is manually intensive, and undesirably inefficient and costly.